Saturday, September 1, 2007

Background on Loy Yang

The Loy Yang power station, which has a generation capacity of 2210 MW, is the largest in Victoria and its adjacent open cut brown coal mine is the largest in Australia, with an annual output of approximately 30 million tonnes of coal. Located within the heart of the Latrobe Valley, 165km east of Melbourne, the Loy Yang Power site covers an area of about 6,000 hectares. Electricity generation at Loy Yang Power requires 60,000 tonnes of brown coal a day, supplied exclusively by Loy Yang mine. Its four dredgers can dig up 3600 tonnes of coal per hour each. This roughly equates to 109,800 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per day, or 55 million tonnes of CO2 per year. (1kg coal = 1.83 kg CO2)

The mine is also highly water intensive, 270 liters/second of high quality artesian water is pumped form underlying aquifers to maintain stability within the mine and to supplement water supply to the power station.

Loy Yang Power is owned by GEAC (Great Energy Alliance Corporations), which comprises the Australian Gas Light Company (32.5%), Tokyo Electric Power Company (32.5%) and a group of investors led by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (35%).

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